Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-02-18
A BOOK CANvASSER'S METHODS.
His Weakness, Humility and Impertur-
Notwithstanding an Order.

Notwithstanding an Order.
"Wc!l, y said the canvasser, putting his
portfolio Oh an adjacent desk, while he
presented his autograph album to the re-
porter. AMI produced pen and ink from
secret recess il his vest-"Well, must
first thank You for your kindness, and
now let me tell you that gall is not such
a pre-cninent ingredient in book can
vassers make up as you and great
many other persons seem to ina inc.
Our first lessons are taken from the Bible,
which teaches meekness and humility. A
real book canvasser never loses his tenn
per; he never gets angry; he never ar
CUES; but he gradually leads the convcr-
sGtion into pleasant channels, and makes
life as agreeable and enjoyable to al
around him as he possibly can. The only
resistance u true canvas;er viii mako to
anybody is when his cllling 5impeachcd.
He is early taught to stand up fer Che
honor of his calling in spite of all that
may be told him of the misleeds of others
who have disgraced it. There are black
sheep in every flock. and all men should
not be held responsible for the sins of
few.
The best way though, to illustrate
our teachings is to tell you how we
work-and al we do comes out of our
course of study as you call tor our
book of instructions. as we call it. We
depend on ourselves to the largest pos
sible extent. Sometimes we have
helper, that is. gentleman or lady of
certain neighborhood who, in considera
ton of a free copy of the book, intro
duccs us to certain people, but the great
trouble about helpers is that they insist
on talking and recommending your work
after introducing you. thereby display
ing their interest and injuring your pros
poets. 1t is harder to keep helpers
quiet than to get along without them. so
choose not to have them. The power
of influence we, Of course, fully recog-
nizc-bu, it is the influence OF example
10y leaders either in society or business.
For this reason we are always glad to
have good names to show-some names
in the building. in the block or in the
Immediate neighhorhoOd On approach
ing a gentleman whose subscription we
desire to secure we have several things to
consider, and l shall mention them in
their order. We generally ascertain the
]
point never to forget name once ac-
quired. 1t is pleasanter and more
effective to call man by his name when
you meet him the first time, be-
cause it makes him feel that his i'm
portance is appreciated and that his fame
is not confined to his family and imme-
date friends. After meeting him, we
look him squarcly in the eye, and, with
out staring him, hold him as the ancient
mariner held his friend with his glitter
ing orb. There is great power in the
human eye, and, besides, it shows that
you are not doing anything you are
ashamed Of If the person is engaged or
too busy, we try to make an appoint
ment for some other time. If we are
canvassng in families and there are chill
dren present we notice them and say
nice things about their looks, or COM
ment on their resemblance to the head of
the house.
The next thing after securing atten-
ton is to create desire on the part of
the person to see what you've got, for
desire must precede demand That il
another of our aXioms. We never show
our books until we have created the
necessary desire. You may have OBJ
served that | tried to keep my portfolio
hidden by the flap of my overcoat. When
we do show our book we do not let it &c
out of our hands, but beginning at the
cover, we explain all its good points, put
ting our descriptions into the best words
we can master. We keep cool, do not
hurry; are concise and direct in our Ian.
guage, and try never to weary or worry
our customer. Then we secure the order
AS soon as the customer shows signs OF
Welding, we have pen and ink ready-wt
always carry ink-and obtain his sigma
ture while his mood is favorable. Aftel
getting the signature we keep away from
the subscriber until we are ready to de
liver the book, and the delivery is made
at time when we know the subscriber
has money--when he gets his salary if {
working man, and after crop time h,
lives in the country.
COLLECTIONS: Oh, gracious yes, we heal
plenty of objections. We are taught t.
expect them, and we train ourselves t.
meet and answer them. In doing th
we aim to be pleasant and happy, with
out being extensively smart, and we avoid
as far as possible, direct answers o
labored arguments. Agents who arr
afraid to depend ON their own facilitie
in such emergencies have a manual from
which they may study and memoriz
answers to the ordinary objections whicl
are offered | have such manual-on
Published here, in which you will fine
objections with ready made answers. -
Globe Democrat.